Various types of machines have been developed for heating, rotating and transporting food products mounted on skewers or other holding devices; incorporating a number of different technologies. Zenos, U.S. Pat. No. 3,734,740, incorporates a pair of chain conveyors, each having corresponding support brackets designed to accommodate opposite ends of a skewer upon which a food product is mounted. The chain conveyors transport the skewered food past heating elements at a fixed speed to heat the food.
Boosalis, deceased et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,440,071, employs two vertically oriented chain conveyors to transport skewer mounted food past a series of heating elements and a gear toothed rack adjacent one conveyor to impart a rotational motion to the skewers to control the evenness of heating of the skewered food.
Neresian, U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,451, utilizes an overhead chain conveyor to suspend and transport a series of vertically oriented skewers past a series of heating elements and reflectors arranged in vertical rows. Each of the skewers includes a stripper disk for removing the food products from the skewer and a clip to retainer the products. The skewers circle the heating elements and reflectors until the food products are sufficiently heated.
Spurgeon, U.S. Pat. No. 1,111,870, comprises a marshmallow-toasting machine that includes a gas burner ring over which a series of marshmallows mounted on skewers is rotated for toasting. The skewers are mounted to a series of drive wheels that are driven around a circular track by an X-shaped arm. This apparatus causes the skewers to rotate as they pass over the burner ring.
Castronuovo, U.S. Pat. No. 3,744,403, discloses a marshmallow toasting device employing a rotating wheel having a series of skewer holders perpendicularly mounted to its upper surface. Skewers are fitted into the holders and marshmallows impaled upon the skewers. The disk rotates the skewers past a series of light bulbs mounted inside of a heat-reflecting cover to toast the marshmallows.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,984,700 describes a handle and core for frozen confections. The device comprises a length of wood or similar material having a handle end and a confection end. The confection end includes a number of indentations that facilitate breaking portions of the material off as the confection is eaten from the distal end. This facilitates removing further pieces of the confection without interference from the portion of the device from which the confection has already been eaten.
While other variations exist, the above-described designs for devices for heating, rotating and transporting food products mounted on skewers, skewers or other holding devices are typical of those encountered in the prior art. It is an objective of the present invention to provide a machine for evenly toasting and roasting food products in an automated fashion while minimizing required handling during loading and heating. It is a still further objective of the invention to provide the above-described capabilities in an inexpensive and durable machine that is capable of extended duty cycles and that may be easily repaired and maintained. It is yet a further objective to provide these capabilities in a machine that may be readily adapted to local conditions such as altitude or ambient temperature. It is still a further objective to provide a machine for toasting and roasting of food products in which the tip of the food support skewer does not contact anything except the food product pierced in mounting. It is still a further objective to provide a machine for toasting and roasting of food products in a fashion that has a beginning and an end of production as opposed to a continuous around and around format as previously described in prior art. Finally, it is an objective of the invention to provide a means to remove the toasted or roasted food products from the devices holding them for heating that minimizes handling of the food products once heated and delivered to a consumer.
While some of the objectives of the present invention are disclosed in the prior art, none of the inventions found include all of the requirements identified.